Just One Of Those Days
by evil-cricket
Summary: Just another ordinary day for the gang in ancient Japan ~ sort of.


Title: Just One Of Those Days  
  
Chapter 1: Morning  
  
Written By: evil-cricket  
  
Last Updated: 1 - 27 - 02  
  
Author Notes: Well, originally this story, which will be four or five chapters in all, was adapted from short stories I wrote at random times this past year. I never finished any of them, so I thought it might be fun to just take everything and weave them together. To make things easier, I shall use the English terms to refer to things, BUT somethings just sound better in Japanese so here is a list of words used frequently in this chapter.  
  
youkai = demon  
  
hanyou = half human, half demon  
  
kitsune = a trickster youkai, a fox  
  
hagetaka = vulture  
  
sabaku = desert  
  
-chan = a name for a close friend, or young child  
  
-sama = respectful term  
  
houshii = monk  
  
taji-ya = demon exterminator  
  
Disclaimer: I wish I owned Inuyasha. I really do, but I don't, and I'm fairly sure you guys know this. This manga rightfully belongs to Takahashi- san! The only original characters that are mine are the hagetaka youkai but if you want them you may have them. ^^; As that I am a poor girl who is only writing this for fun, please don't sue. Thank you.  
  
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Laying on her futon, Kagome Higarashi idly watched the few activities going on in the early morning sky. Every so often a few birds would fly overhead, flapping their graceful wings gently to glide over the soft breeze, while a few clouds drifted overhead at a lazy pace. All in all, it should have been a rather peaceful moment, but instead the only thing the girl had been doing was flinching viciously.  
  
"Ooohh! Eighty-six bottles of beer on the wall! Eighty-six bottles of beer! You take one down and pass it around, eighty-five bottles of beer on the wall! Eighty-five bottles of beer on the wall, eighty-five bottles of beer! You take one down... HEY! Inuyasha, you jerk! Why'd you hit me? I was only singing the song Kagome-chan taught me yesterday!!!" The youthful voice of Shippou squealed out angrily. "I wasn't bothering anybody!" he sniffled.  
  
"That has to be the most annoying song I have ever heard in my life!" Inuyasha hissed. "If you teach him any more songs from your rotten era Kagome, I'll hit YOU the next time, yah hear?" He threatened over in her direction from where he sat, near the dying campfire.  
  
Sitting up numbly, Kagome simply smiled a pained smile over at him, but paid no heed to his harsh words. Instead she comforted the child, who had scurried over to her when the hanyou had first laid hands on him.  
  
"Give him the word Kagome-chan! Give him the word!" he begged in-between sobs, but she only sighed. The truth be told, she was getting ready to shut him up herself if Inuyasha had not beaten her to the punch. She loved the little rascal but what a way to wake up! Whatever possessed her to teach him that song was beyond any reckoning she had at the moment. Yawning, she pushed back the covers with her feet, still holding the kitsune in her arms.  
  
"Ah Shippou-chan. Just ignore Inuyasha this time okay? If you do, I'll bring you a big bag of cookies from home next time I visit there."  
  
"Okay." He sniffled once more, and jumped down out of her arms. "I promise I'll forget about it until you bring me the cookies... the ones with the brown things speckled in 'em!"  
  
"Gotcha." She agreed as he scampered off to the far side of the camp, where Sango and Miroku sat. Perching himself on the houshii's shoulder he watched the two precede in playing a game of dice that by the looks of things, the houshii was losing too. Miroku's staff, sandals, earrings, and the piece of purple cloth he wore over his black kimono were piled up neatly beside the taji-ya, who seemed to be begging him to stop while he was ahead.  
  
Standing, Kagome stretched and walked over to her traveling bag to retrieve a bottle of water she had brought along on the trip to wash the sleep off her face, and grab the clothes that she would be wearing that day. 'Ah. Today seems as if its going to be quiet, all things aside.' she thought to herself as she rummaged through her pack.  
  
"EH! This can't be! Oi, Sango, when did you become so good at dice? You seem too innocent to be a gambler," Miroku groaned in frustration as he began to remove his last layer of clothing. Sango adverted her eyes, apparently flustered.  
  
"Houshii-sama... You really don't have to take off anymore of your clothing."  
  
"But you won." he offered pulling a sleeve off his right shoulder. "And I am not a sore loser... If I had won, I would've made you go through with it, so congratulations," he sighed, beginning to remove the other sleeve.  
  
"I don't care that I won," she retorted flatly, the heat traveling to her cheeks as she grabbed his hands to stop him from stripping anymore. Stifling a giggle, Kagome walked over and sat down by Inuyasha. "Today is starting out interesting enough," she commented, but he made no move to reply. 'He seems a little edgy,' she thought as she looked at him.  
  
"What's wrong?" she asked suddenly.  
  
"Nothing."  
  
"Ah, I see," she said slowly. "Well I'm going to go put my uniform on and get out of my pajamas," she explained as she re-stood. He grunted his dismissal of her, and so she left the little camp area in a thoughtful mood. A few yards away, she stopped, disrobed and put on her usual green mini-skirt, with the matching short-sleeve blouse. She quickly adjusted the sailor's collar on it and stuck the tag back down before returning to the camp sight. Miroku was redressing himself in silence, taking Shippou's heckling for loosing while Sango had taken refuge near Inuyasha, cleaning up their camping equipment. Kagome went over to aid her, and in no time at all they were traveling again, eating oatmeal bars brought from the future for breakfast.  
  
As usual, Inuyasha stalked ahead of the group, looking more angrier with each step he took. Kagome had given up on trying to figure out why he was in such a sour mood and left him to his thoughts. She and Shippou were holding an intense game of, 'I Spy' when Inuyasha stopped on top of a hill a little later that morning. Hoping off her bike, Kagome wheeled it up the slope and right beside him. One glance at the scenery made her gasp. The green forest they had been traveling through came to an abrupt halt and a barren desert stretched out ahead.  
  
"Wha..what is this?" she asked in morbid awe. Inuyasha glanced quietly at her, as Sango and Miroku joined them.  
  
"Hagetaka No Sabaku," the hanyou said quietly. "We have to cross through it."  
  
"Can't we go around it?" Kagome asked, pushing down a shiver. "It doesn't look like a very inviting place..."  
  
"Ah we could do that, but its a lot shorter to cut across - and we want to catch up with Naraku as fast as we can," Sango explained to her. "Oi, I hope we can get through without alerting too many hagetaka though. It may be worth the longer trip just to avoid them," she mused.  
  
"Ah? What do you mean? What are these hagetaka?"  
  
"Vulture youkai," Inuyasha spit in distaste. "They usually try to attack in as small a group as they can - so they don't have to share their victims with their flocks - but sometimes they attack in large numbers and..." he let it trail and stared out into the landscape. Kagome looked into his hardened features, trying her best to remain calm but she couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. Without another word the group set out to the ruined lands below.  
  
Always the gentleman, Miroku came up beside her and placed a comforting arm around her shoulder, as she led her bicycle downhill. "Don't worry Kagome- sama. I'll protect you," he grinned. "All I ask in return is for you to bear my child," he threw in trying to break her clammy mood.  
  
Sango slapped him over the head from somewhere behind, and his arm fell immediately from her shoulders to engage in a argument with the taji-ya. Pausing a second to cast a final glance back at the lush wooded area behind them, Kagome walked forward after theothers and to whatever laid ahead.  
  
A few more long hours of walking through the hot morning sun, and a lot of nagging, Inuyasha finally decide to call the small group to a halt so they could rest within the shade of some rocks and have a bite of lunch.  
  
Having been busy preparing the sandwiches, Kagome had hardly had a chance to react when a sudden noise came from above and caught her and her friends off guard. The sharp blow to her head made a ringing sound in her ears, and she could taste blood in her mouth. She laid there sprawled on the ground a few moments, listening to the sounds of her friends attempting to fight off the enemy who had came in from nowhere. While she was battling mentally to stay awake an onsault of hail was attacking her flesh every now and then. 'The cowards were throwing ROCKS,' she thought in disgust finally. Forcing her eyes to open she made them focus on the first thing she could tell was moving, Sango and Inuyasha. Both were back to back, weapons drawn blocking some of the larger boulders from her and....  
  
Glancing around, she noted that Shippou, Kiara, and Miroku seemed to have taken the same blow to the head as she had and laid unconscious on the ground in various places near her. Although Sango fought valiantly, it was only a matter of time before she fell to the numbers of the hagetaka and their damnable rocks. Inuyasha was of course a little more harder to dispose of and a good six or seven youkai died. The survivors of the youkai finally prevailed and Inuyasha slumped to the ground with a loud thud in the end.  
  
Although she had a blinding headache, she commanded herself to watch on. The creatures began to caw their victory over the fallen warriors, and finally landed and crowded around the fallen bodies that littered the ground.  
  
"Well this was easy pickings!" one of the monsters snarled from its sharp- beaked mouth. Although she had seen A LOT of ugly youkai before, these had to be some of the uglier. They had a odd humanoid look about them but for the most part they did look like vultures. Long bald necks, arms that were actually wings, big pot bellies, and two legs that ended in talon feet.  
  
"Lets hurry up and eat!" the same one from earlier bellowed, and without waiting for the others' replies, he grabbed Sango's limp body and tore away the front of her shirt to expose her upper torso.  
  
Voicing their approval in shrill voices, the others grabbed the rest of the bodies, even those of there own race, and began tearing away their tops as well, exposing their chests. Kagome had a disgusting feeling that those razor sharp beaks were about to devour here intestines. Much more to her horror however, a figure was leaning towards her and she felt a surge of panic crawl through her as he pulled her up by the collar and made way like he was about to tear her shirt.  
  
'Was this how it was going to end?' she kept asking herself, fighting off bitter tears that welled up in the corner of her eyes. Shutting them tightly she waited for the fabric to be torn away but to her relief, all the chattering stopped and she was suddenly released to fall back ungracefully to the hard ground. In the distance, hundreds upon hundreds of bird-like sounds could be heard and the attackers began to talk nervously amongst themselves.  
  
"We have to hide them before they get here," one squalled in panic.  
  
"Its to late! They know there are humans here.." another one replied in disgust.  
  
"Yah. but they don't know how many. Grab our warriors, the two little youkai, and the girl in the odd kimono and lets say this was all there was. We'll bury the others and come back tonight to eat 'em!" one suggested quickly. "There are only 5 of us left so we can divide them fairly well!" The others seemed to approve.  
  
"Lokira!" the chief-of-the-operation commanded. "Bury these three and the rest of us will go meet the flock and stall them as long as possible; so bury them as fast as you can and get back home!" he ordered. That was about all Kagome could remember hearing. At that point she finally gave in and drifted off into the beckoning darkness.  
  
- - -  
  
Thank you for reading everyone, please tell me what you think so far - okay, good, or bad! Also I would like to extend my gratitude to Rei-chan who helped with the final editing of this chapter. Thanks Rei! 


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